In a subtle dig at leftist opponents of the nuclear deal and regional allies of the ruling coalition, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said that “narrow political considerations, based on regional or sectional loyalties and ideologies” should not be allowed to “distort the national vision”.

“This political dimension of the centre-states relations is yet another challenge facing a federal polity like ours,” the Prime Minister said, alluding to a situation where “parties with varying national reach and many with a very limited sub-national reach, form a coalition at the national level”.

“Sometimes the resolution of problems acquires an excessively political hue, and narrow political considerations, based on regional or sectional loyalties and ideologies, can distort the national vision and sense of collective purpose,” he said while hinting at the problems faced by the ruling coalition that comprises some leading regional players.

Learn from others

“We may have a lot to learn from the experience of other countries in this regard,” he told delegates at the fourth International Conference on Federalism at Vigyan Bhavan.

This was a veiled reference to the blocking of the India-US nuclear deal due to fierce opposition from the Left parties that prop the ruling coalition.

Centre-state relations

Singh asked whether a single party state had any advantages in managing centre-state relations smoothly as opposed to a multi-party system.

“Or is a multi-party model, with national parties dominating the political scene, superior where one can hope that all of them will take a national view on policy issues and help to reinforce the unity of the federation,” he asked.

Around 1,000 people from various parts of the world, including heads of states, experts and activists, are participating in the three-day conference.

The prime minister also made a strong pitch for reducing inter-regional disparities and for promoting unity in diversity in a federal polity as he opened a three-day global conference on exchanging experience in federalism.

The conference, organised by the Canada-based Forum of Federations and the Inter-State Council Secretariat of the Indian home ministry, aims at promoting an exchange of ideas on federalism that can help countries wracked by ethnic violence like Sri Lanka.